Still Practicing!

BoblyBill · Jun 14, 2014

What do you think?

1.

IMG_2942 copy by flehartychris, on Flickr

2.

IMG_2903 by flehartychris, on Flickr

3.

IMG_2915 by flehartychris, on Flickr

4.

IMG_2863 by flehartychris, on Flickr

JustJazzie · Jun 14, 2014

I think the first one looks the best! It looks the most in focus, and the colors are nice.

The second one looks pretty blown out on my screen.

nzmacro · Jun 15, 2014

Honestly and being completely honest here, you can stop practising

Darn great shots IMO. Some of those Heron's are in tough lighting conditions and you still nailed them. For me, you are a natural at this. Looking at the second shot with F/2.8, 1/800, ISO 2000, its impressive. Maybe showing a little noise reduction, but still darn good. The first shot is bang on even at 1/400, man that's not easy for bird action shots and all with a 70-200. Could cut back a little in the highlights in #2 and #4

All the best and excellent to see...... all of them

Danny.

Radical · Jun 15, 2014

love #1

robbins.photo · Jun 15, 2014

1 and 4 are both truly outstanding. If I were you I'd seriously consider getting a print made of 1 in particular.

Really great set.

Sent from my LG-LG730 using Tapatalk

LarryLomona · Jun 15, 2014

#1 Excellent capture.
Larry

BoblyBill · Jun 16, 2014

JustJazzie said:
I think the first one looks the best! It looks the most in focus, and the colors are nice.

The second one looks pretty blown out on my screen.

I'll look into the blown outness of #2. I was thinking that the histogram was towards the right but I don't think that any thing was clipping. I think you are right though anyways. A couple of these are on the light side. I'll see what I can do.

nzmacro said:
Honestly and being completely honest here, you can stop practising Darn great shots IMO. Some of those Heron's are in tough lighting conditions and you still nailed them. For me, you are a natural at this. Looking at the second shot with F/2.8, 1/800, ISO 2000, its impressive. Maybe showing a little noise reduction, but still darn good. The first shot is bang on even at 1/400, man that's not easy for bird action shots and all with a 70-200. Could cut back a little in the highlights in #2 and #4

All the best and excellent to see...... all of them

Danny.

Thanks Danny, that means a-lot coming from you. I've seen your work and would love to come up with images like yours. It seems the general consensus on these is to turn down the highlights in a couple and I agree.

Radical said:
love #1

robbins.photo said:
1 and 4 are both truly outstanding. If I were you I'd seriously consider getting a print made of 1 in particular.

Really great set.

Sent from my LG-LG730 using Tapatalk

Thanks Robbins.photo! I do plan on printing #1. I do plan on going to the Down Town Arts Festival next year in Fort Worth. That one will probably be one of the ones that I show.

LarryLomona said:
#1 Excellent capture.
Larry

Thanks!

astroNikon · Jun 16, 2014

I love # 1 ... the object separation from the darker background is great. And the small splash as it's landing :thumbup:

nzmacro · Jun 16, 2014

Coming back to these and at the end of the day, these you could post up in most nature forums and they would stand up well next to any shooter out there IMO. So you honestly have nothing to worry about. Practising, after 45 odd years I'm still practising, that never stops. We learn something new every time we go out and shoot (I know I do) and we also learn new things here everyday as well with the posts.

Anyway, all the best Chris and yep, these are just plain excellent. Won't be long and you will want a longer focal length

Danny.

BoblyBill · Jun 18, 2014

astroNikon said:
I love # 1 ... the object separation from the darker background is great. And the small splash as it's landing :thumbup:

Thanks astro. What's crazy is this park is in the middle of the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex.

nzmacro said:
Coming back to these and at the end of the day, these you could post up in most nature forums and they would stand up well next to any shooter out there IMO. So you honestly have nothing to worry about. Practising, after 45 odd years I'm still practising, that never stops. We learn something new every time we go out and shoot (I know I do) and we also learn new things here everyday as well with the posts.

Anyway, all the best Chris and yep, these are just plain excellent. Won't be long and you will want a longer focal length

Danny.

WOW. Thanks for that Danny!

SnappingShark · Jun 18, 2014

Love number 4 .... the bank line in the background leading me where the bird is flying.. keep at it. practice makes perfect

sm4him · Jun 18, 2014

nzmacro said:
Honestly and being completely honest here, you can stop practising Darn great shots IMO. Some of those Heron's are in tough lighting conditions and you still nailed them. For me, you are a natural at this. Looking at the second shot with F/2.8, 1/800, ISO 2000, its impressive. Maybe showing a little noise reduction, but still darn good. The first shot is bang on even at 1/400, man that's not easy for bird action shots and all with a 70-200. Could cut back a little in the highlights in #2 and #4

All the best and excellent to see...... all of them

Danny.

Well, I never thought I'd disagree with Danny, but I'd say you *absolutely* need to keep practicing.
(Wait!! Don't lynch me yet!!)

My grandmother used to make incredible pies and bread. She'd bake a pie and she almost always had to "apologize" for something about it before we could eat (we called it the pre-dinner apology)--she'd claim the crust was a little too done, or the filling a little too runny or some such. But of course, in reality, the pie was sheer perfection. But we'd eat it and tell her we thought she probably needed just a little more practice, and that we'd be glad to stop by in a few days and try out her next attempt. :lol:

Hopefully nobody actually needs a breakdown of how that analogy fits here... ;-)

So, yeah...you need to keep practicing...and keep posting them here so that we can see your next attempts.

(PS: The only one I'd really nitpick is #2. The highlights on that one really ARE a little bright, for my taste anyway. But #1 makes up for it anyway. Now--go out and try to shoot some swallows in flight, and let's see how you stand up against the BIG boys!! Lol)